1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a virtual document processing apparatus for editing various sorts of data such as documents and tables to form documents, and a recording medium for recording a control program of the virtual document processing apparatus. More specifically, the present invention is directed to such a document processing apparatus capable of effectively printing out documents by forming virtual documents SPOOL files (virtual documents), and further directed to a recording medium for recording a control program used to control such a virtual SPOOL file processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Very recently, for example, in office computers and general-purpose computers, various sorts of application programs are utilized such as database and spreadsheet programs. On the other hand, various sorts of application programs such as spreadsheet programs and database are used in order to form documents distributed in a meeting, documents prepared for representations, and documents containing presentation materials and drawings.
In the case that such a document is printed out, for instance, when a document is printed out, an application program such as a wordprocessor program is initiated to expand document data to be printed out. After a page number of the document to be printed out is designated on a print dialog screen, a print instruction is entered. Thus, the document data to be printed out is transferred to a designated printer driver program saved in a system from an application program. This document data is converted into command data of a designated printer, and then, the converted document data is outputted to this designated printer so as to be printed out.
As a consequence, in such a case that one document contains plural sorts of data such as a document, a presentation material, and a drawing, plural sorts of application programs corresponding to the respective data are separately initiated. Thereafter, a series of the above-explained printing process operations must be repeatedly carried out.
However, while such a conventional printing process operation is carried out, in such a case that one document contains plural sorts of data such as a document, a presentation material, and a drawing, plural sorts of application programs corresponding to the respective data are separately initiated. Thereafter, a series of the above-explained printing process operations must be repeatedly carried out. Also, since no serial page number is applied to the printed matters produced in accordance with the various application programs, operators must manually rearrange these printed matters in accordance with a serial number. As a result, there is a problem that very cumbersome printing works/operations are necessarily required even when only one document is printed out. In particular, when plural sets of documents must be prepared, very lengthy working time is required to rearrange the printed matters in a serial number, and the printing efficiency is lowered.